ムクドリ科muku-dori ka

찌르레기과jjireuregi-gwa

Họ Sáo

Тодолынхонtodoliŋkhoŋ

General

The following is based on analysis of dictionaries and other sources. Malay/Indonesian names are being revised. Comments and corrections are welcome.

The Sturnidae are divided into two groups in Chinese, roughly equivalent to the usual English division between starlings and mynas. All of the Sturnidae are closely related, and scientific and popular classifications have changed several times in recent years. In particular, the H&M4 subfamilies Sturninae and Mainatinae do not form a good correlation with the traditional names.

1. The Chinese name for the starlings, 椋鸟liáng-niǎo, literally 'dogwood-bird', is a loanword from Japanese ムクドリmuku-dori ('muku bird', written 椋鳥). The name was borrowed as a written form, as Chinese characters, rather than as a spoken form. The name was introduced into ornithological Chinese via Zoological Nomenclature of 1923 and was firmly fixed in place by Birds of China (35) in 1927. A number of names from that list remain unchanged today.

While the character 椋 is the same, the plant referred to is different in Chinese and Japanese. In Japanese, 椋 refers to the muku tree (Aphananthe aspera; ムクノキmuku-no-ki, written 椋木), a tree known to the Chinese as 糙叶树cāoyè-shù. The Japanese bird name is based on the fondness of Sturnus cineraceus (White-cheeked Starling) for the very sweet fruit of the muku tree. On the other hand, the character 椋 in Chinese, pronounced liáng, refers to Cornus macrophylla, a species of dogwood found in China. There does not appear to be any special relationship between starlings and dogwoods.

While 椋鸟liáng-niǎo has taken over as the standard name for the starlings, the most common starling in China, Sturnus cineraceus (White-cheeked Starling), has a number of popular local Chinese names (see table).

2. By way of contrast, the name of the mynas originated in China and has been borrowed by the Japanese. The mynas are known as 八哥bā-gē literally 'eight big-brother'. Unqualified, this refers to Acridotheres cristatellus, the Chinese Jungle Myna, which occurs widely over southern China. The name supposedly derives from white patches on the wings of this species, which look like the character 八bā'eight' when in flight. The name has been generalised as the Chinese name for the mynas and has also been borrowed into Japanese as ハッカhakka (written 八哥). An older, more traditional or literary Chinese name for the mynas is 鸲鹆qúyù.

3. The Hill Myna or Southern Grackle (Gracula religiosa), which is the most common cage bird among the mynas, goes by the distinctive name of 鹩哥liáo-gē, where the second character means 'big brother', indicating a probable relationship with the name of Acridotheres cristellatus. There is an alternative name, 秦吉了qín-jí-liǎo, which supposedly derives from the bird's origin in the qín region, i.e., Shaanxi province.

The characters 九官鳥 kyūkan-chō mean 'nine-rank bird'. The explanation is that the bird ranks after the eight Chinese bureaucratic ranks but ahead of ordinary commoners in intelligence.

八哥 bā-gē literally means 'eight big brother', which supposedly refers to white patches on the underside of the wings of Acridotheres cristatellus, the Chinese Jungle Myna, which resemble the character 八 bā 'eight' when the bird is in flight. The name has been generalised as the Chinese name for the mynas and has also been borrowed into Japanese as ハッカ hakka (八哥).